Job 7:10

7:10 He returns no more to his house,

nor does his place of residence ¹  know him ²  any more.

Job 8:18

8:18 If he is uprooted ³  from his place,

then that place ⁴  will disown him, saying, ⁵ 

‘I have never seen you!’

Job 14:18

14:18 But as ⁶  a mountain falls away and crumbles, ⁷ 

and as a rock will be removed from its place,

Job 16:18

An Appeal to God as Witness

16:18 “O earth, do not cover my blood, ⁸ 

nor let there be a secret ⁹  place for my cry.

Job 20:9

20:9 People ¹⁰  who had seen him will not see him again,

and the place where he was

will recognize him no longer.

Job 28:1

III. Job’s Search for Wisdom (28:1-28)

No Known Road to Wisdom ¹¹ 

28:1 “Surely ¹²  there is a mine ¹³  for silver,

and a place where gold is refined. ¹⁴ 

Job 28:12

No Price Can Buy Wisdom

28:12 “But wisdom – where can it be found?

Where is the place of understanding?

Job 28:20

God Alone Has Wisdom

28:20 “But wisdom – where does it come from? ¹⁵ 

Where is the place of understanding?

Job 28:23

28:23 God understands the way to it,

and he alone knows its place.

Job 38:12

38:12 Have you ever in your life ¹⁶  commanded the morning,

or made the dawn know ¹⁷  its place,

[7:10]  ¹ tn M. Dahood suggests the meaning is the same as “his abode” (“Hebrew-Ugaritic Lexicography V,” Bib 48 [1967]: 421-38).

[7:10]  ² tn The verb means “to recognize” by seeing. “His place,” the place where he was living, is the subject of the verb. This personification is intended simply to say that the place where he lived will not have him any more. The line is very similar to Ps 103:16b – when the wind blows the flower away, its place knows it no more.

[8:18]  ³ tc Ball reads אֵל (’el, “God”) instead of אִם (’im, “if”): “God destroys it” – but there is no reason for this. The idea would be implied in the context. A. B. Davidson rightly points out that who destroys it is not important, but the fact that it is destroyed.

[8:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “it”; the referent (“his place” in the preceding line) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:18]  ⁵ tn Here “saying” is supplied in the translation.

[14:18]  ⁵ tn The indication that this is a simile is to be obtained from the conjunction beginning 19c (see GKC 499 §161.a).

[14:18]  ⁶ tn The word יִבּוֹל (yibbol) usually refers to a flower fading and so seems strange here. The LXX and the Syriac translate “and will fall”; most commentators accept this and repoint the preceding word to get “and will surely fall.” Duhm retains the MT and applies the image of the flower to the falling mountain. The verb is used of the earth in Isa 24:4, and so NIV, RSV, and NJPS all have the idea of “crumble away.”

[16:18]  ⁷ sn Job knows that he will die, and that his death, signified here by blood on the ground, will cry out for vindication.

[16:18]  ⁸ tn The word is simply “a place,” but in the context it surely means a hidden place, a secret place that would never be discovered (see 18:21).

[20:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “the eye that had seen him.” Here a part of the person (the eye, the instrument of vision) is put by metonymy for the entire person.

[28:1]  ¹¹ sn As the book is now arranged, this chapter forms an additional speech by Job, although some argue that it comes from the writer of the book. The mood of the chapter is not despair, but wisdom; it anticipates the divine speeches in the end of the book. This poem, like many psalms in the Bible, has a refrain (vv. 12 and 20). These refrains outline the chapter, giving three sections: there is no known road to wisdom (1-11); no price can buy it (12-19); and only God has it, and only by revelation can man posses it (20-28).

[28:1]  ¹² tn The poem opens with כִּי (ki). Some commentators think this should have been “for,” and that the poem once stood in another setting. But there are places in the Bible where this word occurs with the sense of “surely” and no other meaning (cf. Gen 18:20).

[28:1]  ¹³ tn The word מוֹצָא (motsa’, from יָצָא [yatsa’, “go out”]) is the word for “mine,” or more simply, “source.” Mining was not an enormous industry in the land of Canaan or Israel; mined products were imported. Some editors have suggested alternative readings: Dahood found in the word the root for “shine” and translated the MT as “smelter.” But that is going too far. P. Joüon suggested “place of finding,” reading מִמְצָא (mimtsa’) for מוֹצָא (motsa’; see Bib 11 [1930]: 323).

[28:1]  ¹⁴ tn The verb יָזֹקּוּ (yazoqqu) translated “refined,” comes from זָקַק (zaqaq), a word that basically means “to blow.” From the meaning “to blow; to distend; to inflate” derives the meaning for refining.

[28:20]  ¹³ tn The refrain is repeated, except now the verb is תָּבוֹא (tavo’, “come”).

[38:12]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew idiom is “have you from your days?” It means “never in your life” (see 1 Sam 25:28; 1 Kgs 1:6).

[38:12]  ¹⁶ tn The verb is the Piel of יָדַע (yada’, “to know”) with a double accusative.